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Court: Transsexuals have right to breasts
Published: 11 Sep 12 16:16 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120911-44901.html
Male-to-female transsexuals have a legal right to breast enlargement operations when hormone therapy fails to give them a feminine shape, a German federal court ruled Tuesday.
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"Transsexual insurance policy-holders can make a claim to treatment measures to allow them to adapt their gender, including surgical procedures on healthy organs to minimise their psychological suffering, so as to approach the appearance of the other sex that is desired," the court said.
It said such a procedure was justified even if the patient had not yet had a sex-change operation.
The court ruled in the case of a 62-year-old whose health insurance plan paid for hormone treatment and a sex change but whose breasts failed to grow to female proportions.
The insurance company declined to pay for an operation for larger breasts.
In a second case before the court, the insurance company paid for hormone treatments, cosmetic surgery to make the face more feminine and two operations to make the voice of a transsexual patient more womanly.
It had also approved a sex-change operation, which the patient had not yet undergone.
The company argued that hormonal changes could result from the genital operation and lead the breasts to grow and thus rejected a claim for breast augmentation.
The court rejected the insurance companies' stance in both cases, stating that only when a patient's breasts "completely fill" an A-cup could they be considered to have reached an "undoubtedly gender-specific range".
The judges said that this right to breast-enlargement surgery applied even before a sex change, basing its ruling on a recent decision by Germany's top court which found that such a procedure was not a requirement for a legal name change.
AFP/jcw
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Your comments about this article:
on topic - court's decision is only fair. Genetic women are after all eligible for breast augmentation surgery on their health insurance if their breasts are too small (sub-A cup) and if it causes them emotional suffering. Gender Identity Disorder ("transsexuality") is a recognized medical/psychological disorder, and for all intents and purposes, upon completion of gender reassignment I see no reason why transsexuals should not be regarded equal to genetic women in this respect, if their undeveloped breasts become an emotional problem.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/04/health/massachusetts-sex-change-surgery-inmate/index.html
Kaffee und Kuchen good old German tradition.
So it's a good idea to raise costs to insurance companies, who will pass that cost along to everyone, to pander to someones sickness?
>So it's a good idea to raise costs to insurance companies, who will pass that cost along to everyone, to pander to someones sickness?
how is providing medical and psychological assistance to a person suffering from a disorder "pandering to their sickness"?
I think you are one of those people who still have a misguided idea about transsexuals as sexual freaks who do it all for their own gratification. Well, nobody goes through all that just to feed some kind of twisted fetish. And even people who by some off-chance are doing it "for kicks" will never get through all the stages of psychological evaluation that are mandatory before they can undergo any kind of surgical treatment on health insurance.
Transsexuals have profound issues with their sexual identity and their bodies, and whatever their health insurance can do to sort those issues out, I think they are entitled to. That's what health insurance is for, helping people in need. Even if you think their affliction is made-up and some kind of kinky fetish.
Might be difficult to distinguish large tits being necesssary when a patient's breasts "completely fill" an A-cup could they be considered to have reached an "undoubtedly gender-specific range" from a "large penis "completely filling" a jock strap could they have reached an "undoubtedly gender-specific range".
would you be prepared to tell a burn victim that to his grossly disfigured face? Hey, he survived, his face has healed, albeit kids now run away from him screaming... he should get on with his life and not try to be somebody else, right?
I guess I have nothing left to do but wait for the quickly approaching WW3 when all this will be reset back to nothing.
Yeah, because that's even remotely the same, right?
Children should not engage in adult conversations.